James McBride retells the John Brown story

September 5, 2013

GUEST: JAMES MCBRIDE

âI was born a colored man and donât you forget it. But I lived as a colored woman for seventeen years.â These are the words of âOnionâ Shackleford, JAMES MCBRIDEâslatest protagonist, looking back on his years running with the ardent and often violent abolitionist John Brown and his ragged âfreedâ slaves in the Kansas Territory in the late 1850s. Brownâs failed 1859 raid on the federal armory at Harperâs Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia) is imprinted in history books, with no former slaves as survivors. But McBride uses the kidnapped Shackelford, disguised as a girl, as a fictitious lens to look back at our countryâs ugly and rich history. McBrideâs returns to Radio Times to discuss his new novel, âThe Good Lord Bird.â

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